December 13-14, 2010... On Land...Days 3-4

On day 3, a little tired of the long distance driving, we decided to make use of the car for provisioning at the supermarkets in Marin. We haven't bought so much stuff in one fell swoop since we were in Costco in Delray Beach a year ago. The logistics of getting the goods onto the dock, into the dinghy, and back on the boat were still hard...but we did it. (Do you have any idea how heavy a six-pack of 1.5 liter bottles of Orangina is?)

Happy with our haul, we celebrated Patti's birthday a day early and headed to Cap Chevalier for a late lunch at Le Paradisio, a beautiful open air restaurant near the beach. What a fantastic meal. (Thanks Jacques in Bequia for the tip!) We entertained the staff as we danced to the background music. Once they saw us, they turned up the sound and asked us to continue with Mambo Italiano -- we even got our pictures taken by locals. Once again, we are those crazy Americans.

Day 4, our last day with the car, we headed back towards FdF to get the northbound road for Mount Pelee. First though, we stopped at a church in Balata that dominated the view as we traveled up the mountains. Looks just like Sacre Coeur in Paris.

We followed the road higher and higher through the rainforest and the vegetation got very dramatic. Patti's favorite, the giant fern tree, was suddenly everywhere. John masterfully kept us on the tiny road as Patti tried to take pictures out the window. Eventually we came to the town of Morne Rouge where we stopped to visit the volcano museum. They had a film (in English!) about the geology of the Caribbean volcanic arc and more specifically about Pelee, which erupted in 1902 and again in 1929-32. They also included some info about the Soufrieres in St. Vincent and Montserrat, which had more recent eruptions. Pelee had completely destroyed St. Pierre, on the coast. Less well known, it had also destroyed Morne Rouge, which sits just under Pelee. The church that stands there today is the only building that survived the devastation.

When we finished taking in the mountain and the views to both the Caribbean and the Atlantic, we drove to St. Pierre and took the west coast road past the fishing villages of Bellefontaine and Case Pilote to FdF and returned to Ste. Anne. Delivering the car back to the rental agency, we are now boat people again.